Homes be built next to 'busy and noisy bypass' on the edge of Derbyshire village

The scheme, from Owl Homes and Thompson Farming, would see 18 houses built in a field off Marston Lane, bordering the A50 bypass in Doveridge.

Derbyshire Dales District Council planners have recommended that the plans should be approved at a meeting on Tuesday, December 13, with councillors making the final decision.

Gardens for the homes, facing the congested A50, would have 2.2-metre-high walls in a bid to block out noise, with levels in some currently higher than World Health Organisation guidelines.

Noise inside the homes would be acceptable, officers say, as long as the windows are closed.

If approved, the homes would sit opposite a site on which councillors rejected plans for 46 houses last December, opposite the Cavendish Arms pub, finding that the proposed scheme was too “cramped”.

The planned 18-home project would include six houses classed as affordable housing and would see the developer pay more than £200,000 towards primary and secondary school places, a children’s play area and allotments.

Overall, the scheme would include five four-bed houses, eight three-bed houses and five two-bed houses, with access to the site off Marston Road.

New hedges would be planted to separate the houses from a proposed flood attenuation pond – a pool to gather flood water.

Doveridge Parish Council says the site has been included on a district council list of sites earmarked for housing, but had objected to its inclusion on that list.

It says: “The Parish Council and residents feel that Doveridge has received far more than its fair share of the housing needed within Derbyshire Dales District Council.

“They still feel that Doveridge is not a sustainable location and the lack of facilities and amenities bears this out.

“It seems we may also lose the only bus service – approximately hourly – we have at some time in the near future.

“It has been shown in other applications that the noise from the A50 is a serious problem for residents and there is a negative impact from the noise of the A50 on occupiers of dwellings.”

It says homes for nine houses elsewhere in the village have been refused, with one of the reasons being that the noise levels from the A50 were too high.

The parish council says the A50 needs to be resurfaced with a quieter material to resolve the impact on villagers.

It says: “We firmly believe it is inappropriate for development and further to this, we suggest that a noise bund should also be erected along the field boundary with the A50 slip road, along with other noise mitigation measures – further planting of trees.”

The parish council included Department for Transport data showing that 46,007 vehicles used the A50 bypass past Doveridge each day during daytime hours (excluding nighttime) in 2015, with this figure increasing to 51,021 in 2019.

It said: “If the A50 traffic keeps increasing, the generated noise will also be increasing.”

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has asked that one swift brick should be included in each house built on the site. These are hollow nesting bricks suitable for the at risk high-flying bird species the swift.

The council’s environmental health team say there “continues to be reservations about building houses in such a noise sensitive location”

They write: “Ideally, dwellings should be located where noise conditions are suitable for development and where the public health implications as a result of noise are not significant.”

The environmental health team says noise from inside the property is acceptable – with the windows closed – and that noise outdoors, in three of the gardens, continues to exceed guidelines set by the World Health Organisation.

A total of 11 objection letters have been submitted by opposing villagers, who point to the noise coming from A50 as an issue which they feel cannot and should not be ignored.

They write: “The site has no noise plan and unless Owl Housing work with highways to resurface the concrete A50 in a tight time frame, the development should not be permitted for this reason alone.

“The concrete surface of the A50 means that noise levels are higher than predicted.

“If this application is permitted it would set a precedent and may allow previous refusals on this basis to be reviewed.”

On resident claims: “The Highways Agency considered that the number of houses affected by the noise did not warrant the expense of improving the surface.”

Further residents comment: “More houses have been built in the district than allocated with over 25 per cent in Doveridge.

“The village of Doveridge has grown to an unsustainable size over the last few years with no extra infrastructure provided.”

Council planners, recommending approval, wrote: “It is considered that based on the external amenity areas impacted and the mitigation proposed the proposal would not result in significant adverse impacts on health and the quality of life of future residents in accordance with [local policy] and national guidance on noise.

“The noise from the A50 would exceed recognised limits within three of the garden areas, however, this has been mitigated both by the landscaped buffer and 2.2m high walls on the garden boundaries. Taking the above into consideration, it is considered that the benefits outweigh the harm.”